Category / PG research

This part of the blog features news and information for postgraduate research students and supervisors

Congratulations to Dr. Karim Khaled and colleagues

international, PG research

Congratulations to Dr Karim Khaled on the recent publication of the article ‘The Association between Psychological Stress and Dietary Quality and Patterns among Women of Childbearing Age in Lebanon‘.
The paper focuses on psychological stress linked to poorer dietary quality can lead to serious diseases. The objective of this study was to examine the association between psychological stress and dietary quality/patterns among childbearing-aged women in Lebanon. Female participants (n = 249) participated in an online survey-questionnaire which included the previously adapted European Prospective into Cancer and Nutrition food frequency questionnaire and stress, depression, anxiety, physical activity, adiposity, and socio-demographic questions.
The a-priori dietary quality was assessed through the Mediterranean Diet (MD) index. The a-posteriori latent dietary-patterns (DPs) were derived through factor analysis. Regression analysis was performed to investigate the predictors of the DPs. Participants mainly had a medium MD adherence (61%). No association was found between stress and MD adherence. Factor analysis revealed four DPs: “potatoes, vegetables, legumes, soups and sauces, and non-alcoholic beverages” (DP1), “cereals, fats and oils, milk and dairy products, and sugars and snacks” (DP2), “alcoholic beverages, fish and seafood, eggs, and meats and meat products” (DP3), and “fruits and nuts and seeds” (DP4). Regression analysis indicated that DP1 was positively associated with monthly income (p = 0.02) and negatively with mother’s educational level (p = 0.03). DP2 was negatively associated with father’s employment status (p = 0.01) and marital status (p = 0.008). DP3 was negatively associated with higher father’s educational level (p = 0.018), but positively with BMI (p < 0.001). DP4 was positively linked with BMI (p = 0.01).
Further studies are needed to investigate the association between psychological stress and dietary quality/patterns among Lebanese childbearing aged women.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Reference:
  1. Khaled, K., Hundley, V., Bassil, M., Bazzi, M., Tsofliou, F. (2024) The Association between Psychological Stress and Dietary Quality and Patterns among Women of Childbearing Age in Lebanon. Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 8(9): 8-20.

 

 

New National Teaching Fellow at BU utilising Team-based Learning to improve care of patients with chronic pain

Awarded & submitted bids, PG research

Dr Jonny Branney, Principal Academic in Nursing & Clinical Sciences, Department of Nursing Science, was delighted to represent Bournemouth University at the UK Teaching Excellence Award Ceremony 2024 in Edinburgh 3rd October 2024, where he received a National Teaching Fellowship!

Writing on the screen says Jonny Branney, Bournemouth University. Honestly!

The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) recognises, rewards and celebrates individuals who have made an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession. Jonny’s particular impact on education centres around his implementation of Team-based Learning (TBL) in the nursing curriculum at BU and beyond. He has supported colleagues at BU to adopt TBL including Dee Hughes who recently became a certified TBL Practitioner for his work introducing TBL to the MA Scriptwriting programme. TBL has become embedded in the nursing curriculum and been embraced by the team who deliver Applied Healthcare Sciences 2 (too many to name hear, you know who you are!), and in the paramedic science programme, led by Adam Bancroft. Jonny has also delivered workshops nationally and internationally to support other educators to adopt TBL, including in the US, Netherlands and Australia.

Jonny was proud to attend the awarded ceremony at Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh, with his mum who is a retired teacher!

He is now utilising TBL not only in teaching but in his research and professional practice. He and team (Ryan Muldoon, Lecturer in Adult Nursing; Joe Barry, NHS Somerset) earlier this year received a TBLC Research Grant for ‘A qualitative usability testing study of TBL pain science classes for patients with chronic back pain.’ Patient interviews have been transcribed and we eagerly await the final results – preliminary results suggest this approach was popular with patients however, and the team hope to progress to the next stage and seek funding for a feasibility trial.

Thank you to everyone who has provided support on the journey to this award

While the National Teaching Fellowship is an individual award, this would not have been possible without significant support from many colleagues. Jonny would particularly like to thank all his nursing colleagues who have  embraced TBL (notably Monica Arias, now at Univerisidad de Nevarra, Spain, the unit lead who gave permission for him to first experiment with TBL back in 2015!), all the colleagues named above, and all other fantastic colleagues (Angela Warren from PIER, Heads of Department including Kathy Curtis, Professor Steve Ersser and Professor Sue Green) who helped make this happen. Key influences and amazing colleagues from the TBLC (to many to name all!) include Professor Simon Tweddell and Dr Gemma Quinn of the University of Bradford – both National Teaching Fellows themselves. Key mentors at BU were Professor Debbie Holley NTF and Dr Holly Henderson NTF- the application would not have been successful without their guidance, expertise and encouragement! (grateful thanks also to Professor Mel Hughes, NTF). Finally, Jonny would also like to acknowledge the unending support, love and patience from his wife, Debbie and two children. Behind every success is an element of sacrifice – patience truly is a virtue! Jonny apologies in advance if he has neglected to name anyone he should have!!

We now have five National Teaching Fellows at BU including our new Vice Chancellor and CEO, Professor Alison Honour! Who will be next colleague at BU to be rewarded for their outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession? Could it be you…?

 

 

Impact of virtual reality on the well-being and travel experiences of people affected by dementia

BU Challenges, Fusion, Fusion themes, Knowledge Exchange, PG research, REF Subjects, Student Engagement

I am undertaking a research placement as part of my studies on the MSc Foundations of Clinical Psychology. In my role as a research assistant, I have been working on a project that aimed to introduce the idea of travelling using Virtual Reality headsets for people with dementia and their caregivers/ family members. Virtual reality (VR) technology presents a promising means of bridging geographical divides and empowering individuals with dementia to participate in their communities in ways that were not possible prior to diagnosis. Additionally, research has demonstrated the value of virtual reality in helping people with dementia remember their past, revisit their hometown, or most treasured vacation spots. The purpose of this project is to evaluate how virtual reality can support people with dementia with travel and explore the impact on their wellbeing.

This is a collaborative pilot research study involving BU staff from the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) (Dr. Michelle Heward, Dr. Catherine Talbot, Dr. Michele Board, Dr Aisling Flynn, Lyndsey Bradley) and the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research (ICTHR) (Dr. Daisy Fan, Prof. Dimitrios Buhalis) alongside colleagues from PramaLife (Sue Warr and Jo Keats) and is funded with QR funding from the Department of Psychology. We collected data on campus, and I was able to support this and had an opportunity to engage with the participants. The participants were asked to come to 2 sessions. The first session consisted of a session in the Blended Learning Interactive Simulation Suite, also known as the BLISS room. In this room, the participants and their caregivers were given the chance to play interactive VR games of their choice on the walls or visit different parts of the UK, such as London and Oxford. The second session consisted of using the VR headsets, where the participants were able to use the headsets themselves, which allows them to virtually experience other parts of the world, by looking around and having access to a 360 view, of a location of their choosing, whether that be somewhere they had never been to or reminisce about places they have been.

Given this immense opportunity to relive and reminisce about their previous experiences around the world, and their respective homes, the reception was overall a positive one. The participants left feeling positive about having virtually visited places from their past and having engaged with places they have never been to or would like to go to in the future. They provided some useful insights and feedback to inform future research in this area. We now move towards analysing and publishing the data.

Roshin Sibu

For more information about this project please email Michelle mheward@bournemouth.ac.uk

Upcoming BU systematic review training

Awarded & submitted bids, PG research, Publishing, writing

With the upcoming Bournemouth University  systematic review module co-ordinated lead by Prof. Vanora Hundley, the following announcement was timely today:

Your article reached 400 reads

Article: Evidence-based health care in Nepal: The importance of systematic reviews

The systematic review course is part of the INSIGHT programme.

 

Reference:

  1. van Teijlingen, E. R., Simkhada, B., Ireland, J.C., Simkhada, P. P., Bruce, J. (2012). Evidence-based health care in Nepal: The importance of systematic reviews. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, 1(4), 114–118. https://doi.org/10.3126/nje.v1i4.5498

ESRC SWDTP Information Sessions

PG research

Further to the recent blog post about BU’s ESRC South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP), we are delighted to announce two ‘lunchbite’ sessions oriented toward academic colleagues.

These are designed to provide more information about the SWDTP, the pathways which we belong to, the timelines for 2025 cohort applications, and aid supervisors with supporting potential applicants.

BU is linked to 3 of the SWDTP Pathways:

To find out more, please join us at one of the following sessions:

Details about other research degree supervision lunchbites will be released shortly.

 

 

The 16th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference – Call for abstracts

PG research

The Doctoral College is hosting the 16th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference in November and the call for abstracts is now open. 

The conference is a great opportunity to showcase and promote your research, whether you have just started, or you are approaching the end of your journey at BU.

Attending the conference offers a fantastic chance to engage and network with the postgraduate research community and find out more about the exciting and fascinating research that is happening across BU.

Postgraduate researchers (PGRs) are invited to submit their abstracts to present their research via oral or poster presentation:

Application Form and Guidance.

Closing date for submissions: Monday 21 October 09:00.

Registration to attend will open in November. The event will be open to all BU members and external participants.

Event details

Date of conference: Wednesday 27 November (all day)

Location: Fusion Building, Talbot Campus

View posters from last year’s Postgraduate Research Conference.

For any queries, please email pgconference@bournemouth.ac.uk.

ESRC South West Doctoral Training Partnership

PG research

In November last year, it was officially announced that Bournemouth University was part of the successful South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) re-bid to the ESRC. Being part of the SWDTP provides prestigious opportunities to compete for PhD Studentships and Post-Doctoral Fellowships. There are also a number of other benefits including funding available to staff at institutions affiliated with the SWDTP and being part of a wider community of postgraduate students.

The SWDTP is made up of the Universities of Bristol, Bath, Bath Spa, Bournemouth, Exeter, Plymouth, Plymouth Marjons and UWE. The SWDTP ‘Hub’ (based at the University of Bristol) manages an annual competitive process, on behalf of the ESRC, to award up to 34 PhD studentships and 4 Post-Doctoral Fellowships. Bournemouth were invited to join the re-bid in pathways that aligned to the ESRC remit and which scored above an ESRC set threshold in the REF 2021 exercise. Aligned to UoAs 4 (Psychology), 14 (Geography & Environmental Studies), and 24 (Sport & Exercise Sciences, Leisure & Tourism), BU are eligible to apply for studentships across three of the 17 SWDTP pathways: Psychology; Climate Change, Sustainability & Society; and, Health, Well-being & Society.

Despite an exceptionally short window in November last year, we were able to run a limited and streamlined process that enabled us to compete for a limited number of studentships. We are delighted that we will have 2 new ESRC funded studentships begin in September of this year. We are now in the process of developing our first full PhD application round for students who would start in September 2025. The Post-Doctoral Fellow competition is likely to take place in March next year. With 8 institutions aligned to 17 pathways and 34 studentships available annually, these studentships are, understandably, extremely competitive. As such, we are looking to support prospective postgraduate students in the development of competitive applications.

Whilst much of our messaging is oriented toward attracting potential students and developing competitive applications, we are keen to ensure all BU staff who align to the three pathways are aware of these potential opportunities. Indeed, two of the pathways in which we are eligible to apply are interdisciplinary pathways (Climate Change, Sustainability & Society; Health, Well-being & Society). This means that applications may well be strengthened through projects that draw on a number of disciplinary approaches, provided there remains alignment to the UoAs highlighted above and satisfy the ESRC criteria for Social Science.

At this stage, and in the first instance, we just wanted to make colleagues aware of these potential opportunities and outline a few ways you may want to get involved / be visible for future candidates. We would be happy to add colleagues aligned to these pathways to our own internal webpages (see links below) and to email distribution groups. If you would like to be added, please do message the relevant pathway leads (listed below). Also, if you are aware of potential students who may be interested in applying please do feel free to get in touch with the relevant pathway lead. Further, you are able to add your own details to the SWDTP prospective supervisor database in any of the three pathways which BU are currently involved. You are able to add yourself to this database here (deadline is 26th September).

Finally, we will be running a couple of ‘lunchbite’ sessions via the Doctoral College in September / October oriented toward academic colleagues (we will run prospective student sessions in due course). These are designed to provide a little more information about the SWDTP, the pathways to which we belong, the timelines for 2025 cohort applications, and aid supervisors with supporting potential applicants. Please do look out for more information coming soon about these sessions.

BU SWDTP Pathways

Upcoming 3C Event – PGR Culture, Community & Cheeseburgers

PG research

Don’t miss out on your chance to book onto our upcoming 3C event!

We hope you have had a restful summer. To welcome you back to the new academic year, the Doctoral College are inviting all PGRs, Supervisors and RDP facilitators to this 3C event!

For this special welcome back 3C event, we are swapping out the usual cake for cheeseburgers! Reconnect with your PGR community whilst enjoying a cheeseburger in the Talbot Campus courtyard, opposite Weymouth House.

Let’s foster collaboration, support and networking!

Click here for further information and to register. 

 

New midwifery publication

NHS, PG research, Publishing, writing

Congratulations to Ph.D. student Joanne Rack on the publication today of her paper ‘Understanding perceptions and communication of risk in advanced maternal age: a scoping review (protocol) on women’s engagement with health care services’  [1].   Joanne is currently doing a Clinical Doctorate in the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH) focusing on personalised care for women of advanced maternal age.  Her doctoral study is matched-funded by University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust and Bournemouth University [BU].  Her PhD is supervised and supported by Profs. Vanora Hundley, Ann Luce and Edwin van Teijlingen at BU and Dr. Latha Vinayakarao in Poole Maternity Hospital.

Well done!

 

Reference:

  1. Rack, J., Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E., Luce, A., Vinayakarao. L. (2024) Understanding perceptions and communication of risk in advanced maternal age: a scoping review (protocol) on women’s engagement with health care services, MIDIRS Midwifery Digest, 34(3): 201-204.

Game of (Delivery) Drones: New Paper

PG research

Congratulations to BUBS PhD candidate Taalia Nadeem on the publication of “Game of (delivery) drones: A serious game exploring transport futures involving logistics drones with stakeholders” in the Journal of Transport and Health. The paper discusses how the board game supported stakeholders in exploring a potential transport future where drones would be used to make deliveries. The board game enabled participants to test scenarios involving different drone routings and levels of ground risk and energy use within a familiar context with the initial game being based on the Bournemouth area. The game was subsequently developed and used in different contexts including the Solent Region, Cornwall, and Coventry as part of the EPSRC funded E-Drone project and the ESRC funded Future Flight in Place projects.

Drowning prevention meeting for NIHR-funded study

international, PG research

This week our collaborators on the Sonamoni project traveled from Bangladesh and Uganda to Dorset for a set of research planning meetings.  The visitors represented CIPRB (The Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh) and DWB (Design without Borders).  They were hosted by colleagues from Bournemouth University, the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) and from the University of Southampton.  Since Monday we managed to have an intensive week of design workshops, reviewing and incorporating local-community prioritised interventions for child drowning prevention (aged <2years) in Bangladesh.  I say ‘we managed’, but I have been at home all week with COVID-19.  The past few days I was beginning to feel quite well again, so I was unpleasantly surprised that I was still positive when I tested yesterday, and even more so this morning.  Consequently, missing the whole week working with our visiting collaborators.

The Sonamoni project recently presented its own video recording on YouTube,which you can watch here!

Sonamoni is a public health project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through its Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. For more information, visit the NIHR website.

 

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

RKEDF July Digest – Training opportunities for YOU!

Funding opportunities, PG research, Training

Have you heard the news!!!!!!  

We are excited to share some great RKEDF training opportunities coming up in July 2024!  

 Click on the titles to find further details and book your place!!!!  

 AHRC & ESRC: How to write an application in the new format for the Funding Service 

Thursday, July 4, 11:00 – 13:00 – Online 

The session will cover the requirements for the new UKRI application format. We will discuss the application structure focusing on AHRC and ESRC and the sections and how to complete them. The session will be framed with more general information on the various Research Councils that comprise UKRI and best practice in writing applications for external research funding. 

 Principal Investigation – Post Award for RKE 

Wednesday, July 10, 14:00 – 15:00 – Online 

This session is aimed at any researcher who is, who plans to be, a Principal Investigator for an externally funded research or knowledge exchange project.   

 New Generation Thinkers 2025 – AHRC/BBC Radio 4 

Thursday, July 11, 11:00 – 13:30 – F112 – Fusion Building – Talbot Campus 

This is our annual new generation thinkers’ workshop, where we look at the call, requirements, eligibility and having a panel chair and member’s point of view. For early career researchers and PGRs who want to share their research with the public. 

Call information: Develop your media skills with the New Generation Thinkers scheme. The scheme is a partnership between the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the BBC.  

 Building a Policy Influencing Strategy 

Friday, July 12, 9:30 – 16:30 and Thursday, July 18, 9:00 – 16:00 – Zoom 

A one-day online workshop for up to eight researchers, delivered via Zoom and facilitated by public affairs and policy consultant Carys Davis, from The Other Place.   

The session will enable participants to: 

  • develop key messages, supporting narratives and evidence, identify and map their audience, gain insight into the channels available for influencing. 

 RKEDF: ECRN: Where do you begin with Research funding? 

Friday 12th July – 10:00-12:00 – Online 

The workshop is aimed at researchers from across BU at either postdoctoral or early career stage. It will focus on funders including (but not limited to) the AHRC, UKRI, British Academy, Welcome Trust, and NIHR. 

Are you an Early Career Researcher interested in applying for research funding but unsure where to start? In this BU ERC Network special session, professional bid writing consultant Sally Baggott (PhD) offers her insights in the contemporary funding landscape for ECRs,  

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Please assist us in avoiding any waste of resources; make sure you can attend or cancel your booking prior to the session. 

 For more training opportunities, please visit the ‘SharePoint site’ here. 

 For any further information, please contact: RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk